


They Died Because God/We/I Said They Must

by IHearttheHitachiinTwins



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: But Escalates Quickly, Canonical Character Death, Death Really Mellowed J.D Out TBH, Ghosts, Gore, He Went to One in Vegas, His People, Homicidal Thoughts, How Do I Tag, J.D's Been Through Ten High Schools, Kind of Like the Show Actually, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mentions of Sex, Murder, Murder-Suicide, Shameless Parallels to the Canon Plot, She Knows More Serial Killers Than Is Probably Heathy, She Should Stop Doing That, She's Running Out of Friends, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, The OC is a Villain, There are Weirdos in Vegas, There's No Way he Made No Friends in Vegas, Veronica Accidentally Befriends another Serial Killer, it starts slow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 23:30:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IHearttheHitachiinTwins/pseuds/IHearttheHitachiinTwins
Summary: She couldn't promise no more Heathers, but she *had* assumed that there would be no more J.Ds, which was why it was a big problem when the teenage suicide epidemic picked up again, Veronica yet again, right in the middle of it.Veronica has spent the past half a year trying to ignore the apperations that manafested as a result of her mistakes, but the appearance of somebody out to finish what her ex-boyfriend started may just force her to face them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So... Hi. Generally, I don't post on AO3, but there's a criminal lack of material for this fandom, so here I am. 
> 
> I have three more Heathers fanfics in the works, but this one wanted to be written faster apparently, so let's start here. If you want to keep an eye on my account, a 'Drama Club!AU' and 'Reverse Heathers!AU (Murder totally included) lined up.
> 
> I WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY THAT I DO NOT SHIP CANON CAHARCETRS WITH OCs AND I NEVER WILL! YES, THE OC AND JD HAVE MET, BUT THEY WERE AT NO POINT ROMANTICLY INVOLVED. IF YOU WANT TO SHIP THEM, THAT'S OKAY BUT PLEASE DO NOT ASK FOR SIDE STORIES CONTAINING TH TWO OF THEM IN A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP!

Veronica slumped over her desk, the stirrings of the class around her not distracting her unseeing gaze from the blackboard. To the outside viewer, she would simply seem bored, but if someone were able to look past the constraints of the mortal eye, they would see four figures as they tried their damnedest to get her attention. A blonde girl in a red Kimono and with a blue tongue screeched in her ear about everything from her fashion choice for the day to bemoaning the teacher and teasing the students. She was only distracted in her tirade when two burly boys rolled through the teacher’s midriff and almost into her. Sitting on the bookshelf in the corner, admiring the invisible chaos, a dark boy with dark circles under his eyes looked down at the totally oblivious class. All but one totally unaware of his presence.

The two boys had stopped their wrestling match to join the blonde’s nagging. Purring Veronica’s name and rubbing up against her, asking her to talk to them. There was no reaction from the brunette aside from a sigh and a subtle shifting. The apparitions deflated, frustrating the girl into responding had been today’s plan of action. Giving up, the blonde sat and filed her nails by the far wall as the boys went back to wrestling. Only the dark boy on the bookshelf remained watching the blue-clad student, as had been his pastime since long before his death. As the bell granted it’s merciful release upon the prisoners of the maths room the teacher turned. “Don’t forget that we have a test on Friday!” Veronica ignored her unwanted followers to focus on that. A normal test for a normal day. There were no ghosts, there were no murders, just a test on Friday.

Veronica went through the motions of school, trying not to fall asleep in history, jotting notes in chemistry and trying not to puke when the English professor announced their final book to be Moby Dick. When the final period ended and the two remaining Heathers grabbed her wrists (while the final one followed, not that they knew that) and pulled her to Duke’s Jeep. The redhead slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. When she saw that Veronica was still mulling outside, she snapped, “Get in loser, we’re going out!”

“We noticed you were pretty out of it today, so let’s go have some fun?” McNamera smiled softly and opened the door for her. Making her decision, Veronica slid into the backseat and Heather floored the gas. They sped off, tires leaving big, black skid marks on the tarmac.

There were no parties, no events for the three of them to crash, so the Heathers tugged Veronica to the local bar. McNamera already had a tab (sponsored by her father of course) and all three could order whatever they wanted. The brunette in blue asked for a rum-and-coke in memory of the Heather that should have been there, Duke ordered a hard whiskey and the other Heather a cocktail with a name that Veronica couldn't quite remember in her state of light drunkenness.

Once she was buzzed enough to loosen her sensibilities a little, Veronica started taking stock of the room she was in. It was a small building, most people in Sherwood could either afford to host a party with alcohol or couldn’t afford to drink at all, let alone at a bar. Woden walls with uncomfortable chairs at cramped tables. It was usually pretty quite judging by the cleanliness of the place, but tonight there was a large crowd gathered in one corner by the fireplace. She nudged Heather Duke and asked.

“What’s goin’ on over there?”

Duke just shrugged and went back to gossiping to the blonde cheerleader beside her. Clearly, they were going to be no help, so Veronica went on her epic quest to the other side of the room. J.D tried to walk by her side, but she sent him a wicked glare and picked up her pace. He got the hint and trailed behind, floating so low to the ground that his trench coat dragged along the floor. Veronica firmly told herself that she didn’t feel bad. Crossing a room was a difficult task after three rum-and-cokes, but she did eventually make it. To her amazement, the crowd actually parted for her. When she made it to the front of the mass of people, there were two silhouettes framed by firelight on either side of a table. A pack of cards and poker chips between them. She heard a noise behind her that sounded like a cat being strangled. Halfway between a hiss and a growl. She turned to see J.D stock still and shocked, eyes locked, for once not on her, but on the pair in front of the burning logs. “We have to get out of here.” He murmured. “Veronica, you need to get away from here!”

“Why?” She asked in a hushed whisper, remembering that not everybody could see her conversation partner. “What’s wrong?”

“The woman, she is dangerous. Dangerous in a way that makes me look like a toddler throwing his toys around.” Veronica frowned and looked again.

A fully grown man was in a cold sweat, eyeballing a tiny girl that sat opposite him. Seriously, she looked like a child. But, then again, she wasn’t acting like one. She watched the man hum and err over his cards before gingerly setting down two cards. Faster than Veronica’s eyes could even follow, the cards were gone and replaced by substitutes. After blinking a few times, she realized that the pack of cards were in the girl’s hands and she was dealing the man a new hand. Her jaw dropped. the tanned blonde handled cards like no-one she’d ever seen. The dorks in the magic club admittedly did know how to make a poker game look flashy, but this was a whole different level.

When the man picked up his new cards, a crazed look came upon his face and he pushed his (significantly) smaller pile to the middle of the table.

“All in.”

The girl just raised an eyebrow, pale gray eyes uncaring as she slid the necessary pieces forward. The poor man slammed his cards down on the table. “Four of a kind!” He hooted, revealing the four threes in his hand. “Sorry sweetheart, guess your luck ran out.”

A slight frown slid onto the girls face as she slid her cards onto the table face down. “Yeah, I’m sorry too.” She said softly. Veronica blanched. For such a tiny person her voice was surprisingly deep. Not masculine, but rich and sultry. She flipped her cards in one deft movement.

“Royal straight.”

—————————

When she got home that night, Heather, Kurt, and Ram were waiting on her bed. there was a surprising lack of trench-coat clad males. J.D had stuck close to her the entire way home, glancing around like he thought someone might follow them home (HER home, J.D did not live there), but after she walked through the door he had vanished. Since Veronica tried looking up, after his death he seemed to have developed a love for high places, but there was none to be found. She supposed he was doing something else at the moment. The other three disappeared on a regular basis, why shouldn’t he be able to? For a moment, she was oddly disappointed. Over the months since his death, J.D hadn’t left her side once. Always sitting at the foot of her bed in the morning and lounging on her desk until she fell asleep. His absence was disconcerting.

It was a long time before she fell asleep that night.

—————————

The week sailed by. Veronica aced the math test and trawled through another vocab (were they trying to add insult to injury by putting myriad in the test?). She spent the weekend with Martha and Heather M, watching the Princess Bride (finding our Heather had never seen it had kicked off a rant of epic proportions on Martha’s part) and powering their way through a ton of junk food. Heather C bitched about all the weight they must be putting on, Kurt and Rem pretend they weren’t crying and J.D was suspiciously absent. Veronica acknowledged this, but she had wasted enough of her life worrying about J.D’s actions, so she had a good time with her friends and let thoughts of ghostly exes and strange gamblers in run down bars fade away for the time being.

On Monday the next week, Veronica walked into school with J.D clinging protectively to her side. No amount of arguing, glaring or even asking nicely had dissuaded him. She eventually resigned herself to a day with a ghost clinging to her shoulder and made her way to school, J.D Leaning through Heather McNamera to keep his death grip on her shoulder. She couldn’t feel it per say, but there was a trickling cold across her shoulder blades where he touched.

“Did you hear?” Asked Duke, as they made their way to math class, “The old bird finally got the sack!” Veronica blinked in surprise.

“Mrs. Flemming got fired?”

“Yeah,” McNamera chimed in, “apparently some other person came into town a few nights ago and asked for the job. She had more credentials so they booted the kook.”

“Not surprised, they’ve been looking for a reason to fire her for ages. I wonder what the new counselor will be like, I hear they’re from Vegas.” J.D let out that strangled noise again and she was certain that he tried to tighten his grip on her shoulder.

“Wait,” Veronica interrupted in a calm voice, trying to subtly soothe J.D before things started to fly around. He was pretty good at that poltergeist stuff, the only thing binding him not to act out was a promise to her. “A credible person came from Las Vegas to try for a taken position as a high school counselor? That’s a little weird, don’t you think?”

“Who cares why they did it,” Duke went on, unaware of the angry ghost beside her. “I want to know if they’ll let me get off school if I seem damaged enough. Do you think the suicidal angle would still work?”

“Who knows…” McNamera sighed, suicide was still a sore subject for her after the incident. “They’ll probably introduce themselves at lunch. Let’s just go.”

Chemistry was a bore, none of the other subjects fared much better. Even philosophy, which Veronica admittedly kind of liked, was difficult to focus through. The cause of her distraction being the icy sensation of J.D gripping her sleeve like a (pardon the pun) lifeline. No matter how used one got to a ghosts touch, the discomfort never really got easier to ignore.

The periods crawled by and by the time lunch arrived, she was exhausted. J.D hadn’t left her side once and while it was legitimately touching that even in death he cared enough to worry about her, she was just about ready to beg him to relax. To assure him that whatever he was so scared of, the danger wasn’t at school. Wasn’t out to get her.

When she made it to the cafeteria, in a mocking parallel to the scene at the bar, there was a large crowd around a table near the corner of the room. Fighting her way through, she saw one of Kurt and Ram’s old friends (Scott maybe?) with a handful of cards. Facing him down across the table, moonlight eyes totally undeterred by the fact that he dwarfed her, was that same tiny girl from the bar. J.D’s fingers actually crumpled the sleeve of her blouse in his effort to pull her away from the table as he muttered “C’mon, c’mon! Get away from her!”

Scott shoved his cards down, junk hand, and accused the girl of cheating. She simply cocked her head and the jock lunged forward. The crowd surged back to make way for the beat down that was sure to come, but by the time the masses had made room, the girl was gone. Scott whirled around just in time to get a foot to the face.

Clutching his nose, the football player stared in horror at the blonde who was smearing the blood now staining the bottom of her shoes onto the cafeteria floor.

“What the hell? You can’t attack a student, you work here!”

“ _Will_ work here, I start tomorrow.” The female corrected as she gave him a sly look. “Until then it was self-defense. Unless you want to admit you attacked a future member of the staff?”

Scott growled as she winked at him and sauntered away, the crowd parting like the red sea to let her through. Veronica tapped Heather McNamera on the shoulder and asked, “Who was that?”

Heather replied “Apparently the new school counselor…” at the very same time as J.D said from her side:

“Rebecca King. Informant, mass murderer and the most dangerous person that you’ll ever meet.”


End file.
